While much of the attention has been on Clayton Kershaw and his recovery from shoulder trouble, and deservedly so, the Los Angeles Dodgers have had two additional key contributors fall to less than 100 percent in the early stages of Spring Training.
Cody Bellinger made a quick return from a minor brush with back discomfort that kept him out of workouts, and on Saturday added to encouraging showings with a 3-for-3 day that included a pair of doubles.
Meanwhile, Russell Martin became the latest to have his back flare up. He’s appeared in three Cactus League games thus far, with the last coming Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals.
Martin downplayed his lower back trouble, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was similarly optimistic in projecting the veteran catcher would return to the lineup by the middle of the week, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
Russell Martin (back) will return to game action Wednesday.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) March 3, 2019
Roberts initially projected Martin would return Monday as a designated hitter when the Dodgers face the San Francisco Giants. The new target date would give him one week between games.
Martin collected one hit in each of his first two games with the Dodgers, and on the spring is 2-for-8 with two runs scored, one double and three RBI.
He’s looking to bounce back from a down season at the plate in which he set career lows in batting average (.194), slugging percentage (.325) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.663). Martin did manage to slug 10 home runs, which gave him an eighth consecutive season with at least that many.
Supremely confident in his framing and ability to manage a pitching a staff, the Dodgers are counting on Martin and Austin Barnes each having a resurgence to make up for offensive production lost with Yasmani Grandal signing with the Milwaukee Brewers.
